Right on Track

Playful Folle

In the 1960s, Cartier released the extravagant and eccentric Crash watch, a tribute to a senior manager at the Cartier London office who perished in a car crash, during which his watch had been distorted from the fire and kept by a member of staff as a source of inspiration. Coupled with images of Salvador Dali’s “liquid” clocks, the 2012 reincarnation that is the Tank Folle is set to shake up the world of watches once again. The rigid lines of this particular Tank are deconstructed yet balanced at the same time: a truly energetic and dichotomous addition to the collection. Aside from its explosive case shape, it still remains essentially a Tank, with its sun-style dial, Roman numerals and classic blued steel sword-shape hands. Powered by the 8970MC handwound mechanical movement, the watch is set with brilliant-cut diamonds on the brancards and winding crown and worn with a signature anthracite grey polished canvas strap.

Almost a hundred years later, Cartier’s Tank is still pushing the aesthetics of watch design forward. The maison puts it this way: “The story of the Tank watch continues to be written, never to stop. Never stop Tank.”